First off, to the masses of you who continue to complain about the español usage in this blog, there is - and has been - a link to freetranslation.com on the left side of the page. It says something like "i don't understand all this spanish jazz." Use it. Cause no voy a dejar de usar el español. Actually, the longer I'm here, the worse it will probably become.
So there's a heads up. :)
Getting situated in the piso has been easier than I expected.
The toilet works, we have a microwave and deh interwebs, and the view is great. What else could one possibly need?
Además, a couple friends and the compañeros de piso (roomates) y yo had a nice night of getting to know eachother with some pizza and legally purchased alcohol on our roof. Finally, we were all put into a position where we HAD to hablar español, because if we reverted to ingles, poor Tarek had no idea what we were saying.
Y luckily, he was very helpful with and understanding of our spoken errors...
Fue divertido.
Last night was the (I'm assuming) annual street festival La Noche en Blanco, which pretty much consists of getting hammered and dancing in the streets of Madrid until the sun comes up. I'm not really sure what distinguishes esta noche from el resto de las noches in eSpain... but whatever. Well, I take that back. There are free cultural workshops durante La Noche. Details.
Nevertheless, the change of diet had finally caught up to me last night and I partook in a cookie tossing session for the majority of the evening; so, needless to say, I did not experience La Noche en Blanco. Eh. Whatevs. Had to get up early today and I have several things due for this coming week of classes. Así que no pasa nada.
The reason for getting up early today:
I finally made my way to one of two iglesias luteranas in all of eSpain. It was about an hour's metro ride to the south in a town called Móstoles. I'm pretty sure Móstoles is a college town...but I'm not completely sure. It had that feel - and there was indeed a university there.
Anyway, it took me a little while to find the location of the church because the address I was given was c/Pintor Velazquez 5. Which was a building which housed several businesses. Turns out the services are held in a room in the swimming pool building. It was really wonderful to be amongst fellow LCMSers again. Sad it took me travelling 6000 miles away to really appreciate the need for fellowship.
The congregation of this church is about 15? I believe? And today it consisted of the pastor, his wife and two kids, his parents from Argentina, a family of four from Toledo, and myself. Nice and cozy. While I appreciate sitting amongst a mass of Lutherans on a Sunday morning with the organ blairing A Mighty Fortress, I definitely prefer a smaller, more personal service these days (while abroad, I mean).
As I was speaking with the pastor before the service (which didn't start until 11...take a hint Americans), he was describing to me the relationships between the various churches in eSpain. Apparently the LCMSers in eSpain have more amiable relations with the Catholic church than with the ELCAs and other evangelicals. Makes perfect sense to me. The Catholics and LCMSers realize the need for maintaining a strict doctrine and really aren't actively trying to convert eachother, while the ELCAvangelicals simply fight for numbers in an anti-doctrinal crusade.
What a universal sentiment.
Well. I guess I've fulfilled my quota of religiously offensive statements for the day; so I'm off to prepare a presentation on a topic that no one really cares about.
Buenas,
Beccaniles
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